Edward Snowden Designed a Surveillance-Proof Phone Case

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower has designed a phone case that alerts its users when they are being spied on.

Snowden, who made headlines in 2013 when he leaked top classified information about the NSA, now lives in exile in Russia.

Since moving to Russia, Snowden started working for the ‘Freedom of the Press Foundation’ that help media organizations around the world report freely and hold governments accountable.

He teamed up with an electrical engineer and hacker Andrew Huang to create this device that taps into the phone and monitors electrical signals being sent to its antenna. A display screen at the back will alert the users that the phone is sending or receiving data without their knowledge or permission.

Image courtesy Andrew Huang and Edward Snowden

Phone actually has its radios off when it says it does

The smartphone case has a ‘kill switch’ that allows the user to quickly cut the power to stop all the radio signals. The duo claims that this feature is more secure than airplane mode.

The phone case was originally designed for iPhone 6, but it can work with any smartphone. They hope to develop a prototype next year and later on produce modified iPhones for journalists.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. You can also find Nidhi on Google+.